Robert Downey Jr. said that his jail time has ultimately saved his life, which had become a series of nightmarish episodes, reported FOX news online.

“There was value in it ... I don't want to be a proponent of the system, but certain ideals have changed for me," the now-sober actor tells the October issue of Details in his first post-jail interview, reported FOX.

"I would have been the first to say it's unconstitutional to put drug abusers in jail or prison. Well, it's unconstitutional to be a human being and screw up your life that way.

"For me, it was about women and spending, the drugs were the icing, part of the deal. They all worked together ... an entirely bloated dysfunction."

Downey, 35, was sprung last month after spending a year in the slammer for drug and weapon offenses and violation of parole. He is in halfway house.

The bad-boy actor says prison taught him how to appreciate the simple things, and to be a kinder, gentler human being.

"This might sound a bit pathetic, but I like America a lot more than I ever did before," he tells the magazine. "You might think I'm embittered, or that I could say, ‘It's terrible what they did to me, this country. But instead, ‘I'm like, ‘Fresno rocks!' It's all good.

"I'm not the same animal," he added.

He was so drug-crazed at one point, that even getting through the day with his young son, Indio, was impossible without getting high.

"Like, ugh, my kid wants to look at these Pokémon cards. God! I could deal with this if I smoked a couple grams of black-tar heroin."

His wife, Deborah Falconer, got so fed up with his hard-core drug use and partying, she dumped him and got herself a new man.

His transition from wild man to law-abiding citizen is going to take awhile.

He's in debt to the IRS to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars. And if he falls off the wagon, it's back behind bars. But the poster boy of '90s Hollywood scandal is adamant that prison for drug users can work – Albawaba.com.